My daughter learned to fist bump and it was one of the best toddler parenting lessons I’ve learned so far.

I work retail so it’s easy to stop in on my day off. We recently went though a management shuffle and so several of my bosses hadn’t met my two year old daughter yet. Those who have always love seeing her because she’s the cutest thing ever (I’m totally not biased at all 🤪).I stopped in the other day and got to chatting with my direct boss. He offered my daughter a fist bump. She’s super shy and didn’t exactly know what he was offering, so I took the bump instead. I completely forgot about it afterward but after we got home, I was helping her take her shoes off and happened to have my hand fisted and she “bumped” it with her fist. From then on out, I’ve encouraged her to continue fist bumping.Tonight, when going to bed, she chose a fist bump over a hug. She’s always been very affectionate. She hugs and kisses anything and everything she likes, to the point that sometimes we have to ask her to refrain from hugging something (a wild squirrel or bird or goat at the petting zoo). But just like any human, she will occasionally not want a hug. I didn’t know how to help her except to tell her that it’s okay to say no to a hug or kiss. But she’s also very perceptive and could tell when we are bummed when we receive an adamant “no” after asking for one. She often goes ahead and gives us one anyway. Learning to fist bump has given her tool to show affection that is an appropriate compromise between wanting to show affection but not wanting the physical, personal contact of a hug or kiss. Now, I just have to remember this and try to find compromises in the future when she shows signs of wanting to please us but not wanting to do what we’ve asked of her ... via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2NAjJ9T